Cowboy Bebop: The Second Movie
by jak981125
Summary: Our favorite bounty hunters are called into action when a woman with supernatural powers goes on a vigilantestyle killing spree. Follows the Lau Saga storyline. Final chapter is up. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.
1. Act 1

Note: This movie follows the story line of Cowboy Bebop: The Lau Saga by jak981125.  
  
New York City. July 4th, 2074.  
  
The Manhattan sky was ablaze with the finale of the annual fireworks display. It was always quite a sight, year after year. No one could wait for the tricentenial in two years. What a show that was sure to be! When the display was over, the land was dark again but you could hear thunderous applause all over the place, especially in Central Park.  
  
One solitary man seemed to have been paying little attention to the fireworks. He was only interested in the crowd. He was looking for an easy target to mug. There was a man standing nearby who looked to be from out of town. This out-of-towner headed off deep into the park alone where it was dark and there were no crowds. The thug couldn't help but think he had struck the jackpot. This fool was just ripe for the picking. Or so he thought. The man he was following was Lau.  
  
As soon as they were some distance from the crowd, the mugger produced a gun. "OK pal, this is your unlucky day. Now hand over your money."  
  
Lau slowly turned around and smiled. "Lo siento, señor, no hablo ingles."  
  
"Very funny," replied the mugger. "You ain't Mexican. Now hand it over."  
  
"Que?"  
  
"Look buddy, I'm warning you..."  
  
What the mugger hadn't seen were two other figures emerge from the darkness behind him. One was Jet and the other was Faye. Jet jammed a gun into the mugger's back. "Now you be a nice little scumbag and drop the piece," he said with a grin.  
  
The mugger cooperated in dropping the gun but then made a serious error in judgment. He decided to run for it. "Hey, don't you wanna stay and play some more?" called Faye after him. None of them bothered pursuing him. He continued to run, thinking he had shaken these guys. Wrong. Out of nowhere, the Redtail descended very suddenly and pulled in front of him. It was being piloted by Ed.  
  
"You might want to stop running," warned Ed over the Redtail's loudspeaker. "Ed doubts you could outrun this thing but you're welcome to try."  
  
And try he did. Ed sat back with a grin. "Silly man. Ed will give him a ten second head start. One...two..."  
  
The man ran blindly as fast as he could.  
  
"...seven...eight..."  
  
He tried to run into a grove of trees thinking he could lose her there.  
  
"...ten! Ready or not, here Edward comes!" Ed flipped on a switch and immediately a heat sensor showed her where the mugger was. She quickly descended and fired a net launcher. The mugger was caught. She giggled at him as he tried to struggle out of it and only got tangled up more. "Tag, you're it!"  
  
THREE, TWO, ONE...Let's Jam!  
  
COWBOY BEBOP: THE SECOND MOVIE  
  
By jak981125  
  
ACT I  
  
The next morning, Lau and Jet sat inside a store-front office. They had gone ahead with their plans from the previous year and had purchased Manhattan Fugitive Recovery. They had only a few other bounty hunters working for them but that meant more profits so no one complained. Yeah right. This is Bebop we're talking about.  
  
At the moment, the two of them were quite uncomfortable. Lau smacked the air conditioner in the window but it wouldn't start. He sighed and shook his head at Jet. "The previous owners said this thing was brand new!" growled Lau.  
  
Just then an eighteen year old bounty hunter named Matthew walked into the office. "Why the hell is it so hot in here?" he asked.  
  
"Good morning to you too, Matthew," replied Jet in a surly tone.  
  
"Heard you guys caught a mugger who was actually worth over a million last night," said Matthew.  
  
"Yeah well, the guy had been around a while and the cops were getting a little sick of him," replied Lau. "So, did you get your man last night?"  
  
"What, that car thief?" he asked. "Sure thing. He was hiding on the roof of his mother's apartment building. So Lau, the little woman's not in yet?"  
  
"If Faye ever hears you call her that, she'll kill you," warned Lau.  
  
At that moment, the "little woman" was flying over Manhattan in the Redtail with baby Julia strapped to her front in a baby carrier. Julia loved rock music almost as much as her father did. Faye was playing "Hammer To Fall" from Queen over the speakers and she and the baby were loving it. You didn't sing "Rock A Bye Baby" to get Julia to sleep. You played "Pinball Wizard" over the hi-fi.  
  
Faye was headed over to the apartment building that Jet, Ed, and Ein now occupied. As promised, Jet had signed the Bebop over to Lau. Faye landed and parked the Redtail on the top deck of a parking garage and then headed inside the building.  
  
She knocked on the door to Jet's apartment and Ed answered. Ed was now sixteen. She was Julia's sitter. She could watch the baby all year long since she had passed a high school equivalency test at the age of twelve. Even at sixteen, Ed's personality had changed only a little. Ed's wardrobe had changed again, though. It was summer and she had traded in her green sweatshirt for a red tanktop and navy shorts.  
  
"Oh, come to Auntie Edward!" she cried as she reached out and took the baby from Faye.  
  
"She's had a little colic lately," warned Faye. "If she starts crying, you know how to calm her down, right?"  
  
"Take her for a ride in the jet and play loud music from the twentieth century, right?" asked Ed.  
  
"Ed, what would I do without you?" replied Faye. "You know, you were a lot of help yesterday."  
  
"See, Ed told Papa Jet that she could be a bounty hunter. But he always says I'm too young. That's silly. Edward caught that mugger, right?"  
  
"Yeah, but you had the Redtail," replied Faye.  
  
"Edward could have done it just fine on her own. Ed knows how to fight now. You think I could be a bounty hunter, don't you Julia?" The baby let out a loud burp in response. "See?"  
  
Faye grinned and headed back to the parking garage while Ed took the baby into the apartment. Faye boarded the Redtail and headed to work. She was not necessarily always in the habit of observing her surroundings while flying. Nevertheless, as she flew, she noticed a young woman about thirty years old with black hair and green eyes who was standing on the edge of a rooftop. "Gees, I hope she's not going to jump or something," said Faye to herself. But when Faye turned the ship around to take another look, the woman was gone. She looked down but didn't see anyone splattered on the pavement below. "I must be seeing things," she groaned to herself. "It must be the heat." She flew off towards the office.  
  
Back in Central Park, not far from where Ed had caught the mugger the previous night, a girl was jogging when she was suddenly snatched into the bushes. A knife was put to her throat. "Alright you little wench, take it all off right now and don't scream of I swear I'll slit you open!"  
  
The girl was terrified and fainted. The rapist smirked and walked over to her. "Now don't do that. It's no fun when you don't put up a struggle." Just then he sensed he wasn't alone. He turned around and sure enough, that woman from the roof was standing right behind him. "Get lost or you're next!" he warned. He was trying to act tough, but he was frightened of attracting any additional attention to what he was doing. As it was, she didn't answer but her green eyes suddenly glowed. "Huh? What the hell? Hey, you want a piece of me or something?"  
  
The rapist raised his knife in a threatening manner. Before he could react, the woman grabbed his arm and forced his knife into his own gut. She quickly put her hand over the man's mouth so he couldn't yell out. She looked him in the eye and gave him a sickening grin. She continued covering his mouth until he dropped dead. Just then, his would-be victim woke up. She saw no one except the dead rapist. She started screaming as loud as she could.  
  
Faye opened the door to the office but as soon as she sensed the heat, she stood in the doorway, not taking another step. "Haven't you people ever heard of air conditioning?" she complained.  
  
"It's busted," replied Lau.  
  
Faye walked over to a mini refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. Rather than drink it, however, she dumped it over her head. "Ah, that's much better. Hey Jet, I was talking to Ed and she's still pushing the whole bounty hunting thing."  
  
"I knew it," groaned Jet as he looked up from his newspaper. "I never should have caved in and let her come with us last night."  
  
"Well she's not in school so it's not like she has anything better to do except baby-sit," replied Faye. "Besides, she's not a little girl anymore. She might be able to handle herself out there. She's been sitting on the sidelines watching us do this for years. You can't blame her for feeling that way."  
  
"I don't blame her, I just don't want her getting hurt," replied Jet.  
  
"Hey, you could send her out with me sometime," said Matthew. "I wouldn't let anything happen to her."  
  
Faye grinned. "Why Matthew, are you carrying a torch for Ed? That's so cute."  
  
"Cute?" growled Jet. "Kid, if you so much as look at her the wrong way you'll be looking for a new job, got it?"  
  
"Gee, I guess that means I'll have to call her and tell her the wedding's off," replied Matthew with a grin. If looks could kill, Jet's glare would have destroyed Matthew right on the spot. "Just kidding." Matthew skulked off and sat down with two other young bounty hunters around a table.  
  
Lau handed a computer printout to Jet. "Check this out. It's a car- jacker worth two million. You want us to take it or should we hand it over to the three stooges over there?"  
  
"You and I will get this one," replied Jet. "Another minute in this office and my brains are going to fry like an egg. Faye, you want to come with or man the phones?"  
  
"I'm gonna get on the phone and get someone over here to fix the damn air conditioner," she replied. "You guys go ahead."  
  
Lau walked over and gave Faye a peck on the cheek. Then he and Jet headed out in search of their car-jacker.  
  
Meanwhile Julia was starting to cry at the apartment. Ed couldn't get her to settle down. She sighed. "Ein, Ed's taking the baby for a ride, OK?"  
  
Ein showed no interest one way or another. Ed took the baby over to the parking garage. Ed now had a zip craft of her own called the Falcon. It was shaped like a guitar pick and had a bubble cockpit on top. She got in and placed the baby in a carrier next to her. "Are you ready? OK, hold on." She started up the jet and took off.  
  
She flew over the New York skyline at speeds exceeding three hundred miles an hour. The baby, who normally would have been thrilled, merely quieted down a little bit. Ed flew between buildings, over the East River, and right above traffic. She looked over at Julia and smiled. The two of them had a real bond. They were quite fond of each other.  
  
"Hey, Ed knows where we can go. We were at the park last night. We'll fly over Central Park. You would like that, wouldn't you cutie pie?" The baby gave no response. "Poor kid, you must have some bad colic." As Ed flew over the park, she slowed the jet a little and lowered her altitude. She wanted to check out the scenery a little. She thought it was beautiful to have all these trees and this grass right in the middle of a massive metropolis such as New York.  
  
Just then, Ed saw something she couldn't believe was real. It was that green eyed woman. She was flying! "Aye ya! How's she doing that?" The baby looked and saw what Ed was staring at and giggled. The woman didn't seem to notice Ed at all. She flew off towards the city. "That is very strange and Ed is an expert on strange," she said to the baby. The baby burped again in response.  
  
Jet and Lau were standing on a rooftop in the Bronx. They were watching their suspect arguing with his girlfriend in a nearby apartment building. "Honestly this is getting boring," complained Jet. "Although it would be amusing to hear what they're arguing about."  
  
Lau grinned. "What do you mean you spent the grocery money on drugs?" he mimicked.  
  
"Given this neighborhood it would be more like 'What do you mean you spent the drug money on groceries?' or something to that affect," replied Jet. "Oh goodie, he's leaving."  
  
About then, Faye was on the phone with the air conditioning company. "I don't care if you have a backlog of service calls. None of your other customers can send a disgruntled bounty hunter after you if you don't show up. I have three here right now...well same to you!" She hung up angrily. Just then Ed came in. "Ed, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching the baby. There's nothing wrong with her, is there?"  
  
Ed handed Julia over to Faye. "Nothing is wrong with Julia but I think Ed is seeing things," she said. "Could Ed have a word with you in private?"  
  
The two of them stepped into the back room. "This had better be important Ed," said Faye.  
  
"Faye Faye, you said you saw a man fly once, right?"  
  
"I said what?"  
  
"A man who was trying to kill Spike."  
  
"Ed, everyone and his mother was trying to kill Spike...wait a sec, now that you mention it...Pierrot, he was able to levitate. Wait a minute why are you asking me about Mad Pierrot now?"  
  
Ed sighed. "Promise not to think Ed is cuckoo?"  
  
"Cross my heart. Now what's up?"  
  
"Ed saw a woman in the park who was flying and she had no jetpack on."  
  
Faye stared at Ed for a minute. "That's impossible," she said slowly.  
  
"I'm telling you, Ed saw a flying woman in the park with black hair..."  
  
"And green eyes," interrupted Faye. She suddenly understood. "I saw her too. This morning. But how is that possible?"  
  
Back in the Bronx, the carjacker left his apartment and climbed into a vintage white convertible parked on the street. He took a parking ticket off the window and threw it on the ground.  
  
"Hmm, I wonder if we can get a little extra on this guy," said Lau. He just committed another crime; disregarding a citation."  
  
"Don't forget littering," replied Jet with a grin. The two of them boarded their zip crafts.  
  
As the carjacker drove down the streets of his Bronx neighborhood, he was too busy listening to the rap music on his radio to notice the Hammerhead and Swordfish flying overhead. "Let's wait a little while until he gets to an area with fewer people around," said Jet over the radio. "We don't want anyone getting hurt."  
  
The two of them followed the car until it reached a more industrial area with fewer residents. Lau aimed at his tires and fired his machine gun. He timed it just right. The tires blew out but the car didn't crash because it was traveling at a relatively low speed. The surprised carjacker looked up to see Jet and Lau circling around him like buzzards. He pulled a shiny metal handgun out and opened fire on them. Jet responded by dropping a canister of tear gas down onto the street. The carjacker dropped his gun and started coughing. He decided to run. The two crafts landed. Jet and Lau emerged and ran after him. The day was hot and not a pleasant one on which to chase a suspect. After only a couple of blocks, Lau pulled out his gun and fired a warning shot. "Alright, that's enough. It's too damn hot for this. Now get over here and keep your hands up."  
  
The carjacker knew he was finished. He put his hands on his head and slowly walked over to Lau. Then it happened. No one noticed a black haired woman with green eyes hovering twenty feet over their heads until she descended, placing herself between Lau and Jet and their intended target. "What the hell?" exclaimed Jet. As for Lau, he was too stunned to say anything.  
  
Very slowly, she walked over to the carjacker. Lau and Jet watched in amazement. "We should be stopping this, right?" asked Lau. Jet didn't respond. The woman came right up to the stunned carjacker, smiled, and then produced a gun. Before Lau or Jet could do anything, she ruthlessly gunned the man down, smiling the whole time.  
  
"Alright lady, drop the hardware!" yelled Lau as he and Jet pointed their guns at her. She slowly turned around and looked at them. The smile was gone. She seemed to be looking straight through them.  
  
"They all must pay," she said at last. "He was only money to you. Don't interfere with me." She raised her gun. At that moment Lau and Jet opened fire on her. To their horror, a green force field appeared around her and blocked their bullets. Lau had no idea what this was all about but Jet immediately thought back to Mad Pierrot.  
  
"LAU! HIT THE DECK!" Jet immediately jumped behind a parked car on the left side of the street while Lau jumped behind a mailbox on the right side. She returned fire at them and kept shooting until she ran out of ammo. "Lau, stay put!" yelled Jet. He knew they weren't safe just yet.  
  
Just then, a patrol car came up the street straight towards the girl. A look of anger came over her. Before the car came to a stop, something truly horrible happened. The woman pointed the palm of her hand at the police car and a green burst of energy emerged from it. The energy burst flew straight at the police car and it exploded. One police officer was killed right away. The other jumped out. His clothes were on fire. Before he even had a chance to extinguish himself, she reloaded her gun and shot him dead.  
  
At this point, Lau pulled a gas grenade out of his pocket. He threw it onto the street and immediately it released a dark gray cloud of gas. He signaled to Jet that they should make a break for it while her vision was obstructed. The two of them ran down the street as fast as they could. Just then, another green blast emerged from the cloud of gas. It hit the pavement, sending chunks of it flying everywhere. One chunk hit Lau in the ear, causing it to bleed. Another hit Jet in the back pretty hard. I'm sure that left a big bruise.  
  
Just then, there was a strong wind, which blew away the cloud of gas. The woman was gone. Jet and Lau had no time to ponder over that. Within moments, over ten police units showed up on the scene. The two of them spent the better part of an hour trying to explain to the cops what they had witnessed.  
  
"Sure pal, we're always getting attacked by young women with supernatural powers," scoffed one officer.  
  
"Look, I know it sounds crazy," replied Jet. "But the security footage from that ATM over there ought to confirm my whole story."  
  
"It sounds more than crazy," replied the cop. "It sounds like the kind of thing you see after sniffing paint fumes."  
  
"Just get the footage!" growled Jet. The cop walked over to the ATM and downloaded the security footage. He took it back to his car and watched in on his computer.  
  
"Whoa!" He ran over and signaled for his fellow cops to come join him. All of them were astounded at what they saw. The cop walked back over to Jet. "Well cowboy, we may have one very big bounty for you."  
  
Ed stepped outside of the MFR office for a moment. She told Faye she was going out to get some fresh air. Just then, someone snuck up behind her and covered her eyes. "Guess who?"  
  
Ed grinned. "Winston Churchill?"  
  
"Aw, you guessed." Ed turned around to see Matthew standing behind her. He leaned over and kissed her. "So, you still haven't told your old man about us yet?"  
  
"Ed with an older boy, one who's a bounty hunter? No, he wouldn't like that one bit. Ed would hate to see you get fired or anything."  
  
"So where do you tell him you are when you and I are together?" asked Matthew.  
  
"I tell him Ed is hanging out with friends in the Village," she replied. "Ed just doesn't tell him which friends. It's still technically true."  
  
"I hate sneaking around like this behind Jet's back," said Matthew. "Hmm...speak of the devil..."  
  
At that moment Jet and Lau approached the building. "What are you doing here, Ed?" asked Jet. "Aren't you supposed to be baby-sitting? And Matthew, I KNOW you should be doing something."  
  
"Uh, now that you mention it, there was a red eye dealer I wanted to catch today," replied Matthew. "I'll go get him right now. See you Ed." He walked off in a big hurry.  
  
"Where's Faye?" asked Jet.  
  
"Inside feeding the baby," replied Ed. Jet started to head towards the office. "Did I mention she was breast-feeding?" Jet immediately turned around and walked right back to where he had been standing. "Lau, what happened to your ear?"  
  
"That's what we wanted to talk to Faye about," said Lau. "We were going after this bounty head and out of nowhere this crazy lady kills the guy we're after and starts attacking us."  
  
Something suddenly occurred to Ed. "She didn't have black hair and green eyes, did she?"  
  
"How did you know?" asked Lau.  
  
"Lucky guess."  
  
END OF ACT I (c) 2004 Joseph Kerner  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Cowboy Bebop or any other registered trademarks I may have mentioned in this story. 


	2. Act 2

ACT II  
  
Ed sat at a computer terminal inside the office with Jet, Lau, Faye, and the two remaining bounty hunters looking over her shoulder. "Let's see, ISSP database, hmm..Project Tongpu...where are you? Ed found you once, she'll do it again...huh..."  
  
"What is it?" asked Faye.  
  
"It's just the same footage Ed found last time."  
  
"Is there anything else?"  
  
"Nope...You know, Edward works better when five people aren't breathing down her neck."  
  
All of them backed off. "Jet, I thought there was only one test subject," said Faye.  
  
"I don't know how many there were," he replied. "Only one test subject was documented."  
  
"What happened with that one?" asked Lau.  
  
"That was the guy we were telling you about; Mad Pierrot," said Jet. "The man gained amazing powers but his mind regressed to the level of a child and his level of aggression skyrocketed. They knew about the mental regression, and that's why they canceled the project, but they found out about the aggression the hard way. He killed his guards and escaped from the facility. After that, Mad Pierrot went on a cop-killing spree."  
  
"So why did he decide to go after Spike?" asked Lau. "Did he run out of cops to kill and decide to target cowboys?"  
  
"He would also kill anyone who had ever seen him," replied Jet. "Spike got lucky. Pierrot could block bullets but he couldn't block a throwing knife. And when he suffered even mild pain or fear, he was nearly incapacitated because of his immaturity. Strange thing is, I think that girl from today was stronger than Pierrot."  
  
Meanwhile near Times Square, a man in jeans and a black tank-top emerged from the subway and hailed a cab. One stopped for him immediately. He climbed in the back. "Take me to Harlem," he told the driver through the safety glass separating the front seats from the back. The cab drove off. "Hey man, you're going the wrong way."  
  
The driver turned back and smiled. It was Matthew. "Yeah, but I'm going the right way to get to the nearest police station. It's half a million on you, right?"  
  
The red eye dealer tried to open the doors or a window but the child-locks on the doors had been activated and the power to the windows could be shut off from the front seat. "Now settle down," said Matthew. "I have to get this cab back to a buddy of mine and if you damage it, I'll pull over smack you back to the Stone Age. So sit back, relax, and don't forget to tip the driver."  
  
Matthew pulled up outside of a police station. He turned back to his prisoner. "When I open the door you'd better not try to run. I was a sprinter in high school." He let the dealer out and cuffed him. Just then, two detectives pulled up in a sedan and took out a prisoner of their own. They nodded politely to Matthew as they headed for the building. Take a wild guess what happened next.   
  
A green blast of energy struck their prisoner, killing him and burning the two detectives. Matthew grabbed his own prisoner and pushed him behind the cab. He drew a gun and looked all around for the assailant. "She's up there!" yelled the prisoner. Matthew looked up and sure enough, she was sitting on the roof to the police station. He opened fire on her, only to get the same result that Jet and Lau had. She leapt off the top of the building and landed on the sidewalk right in front of Matthew. The red eye dealer took one look at her and ran off even though he had cuffs on. She grabbed Matthew by the throat, slapped the gun out of his hand, and stared straight into his eyes.  
  
"Who...who are you?" he gasped.  
  
"Vera," she replied with a smile that could have frozen water.  
  
Just then, a swarm of cop came out of the building with guns drawn. Without releasing Matthew, she used her free hand to blast every single one of them. She turned back to face her captive. "You are no police officer. What are you?"  
  
"A bounty hunter," he replied.  
  
"Another one? Don't you realize justice matters more than money? I am justice incarnate. No one who hurts the innocent can escape me. For that reason, I came into existence. And you...you are in my way. You don't want to be in my way."  
  
Her hand glowed with a pink light. She blasted Matthew in the gut with a pink energy which was unlike the green ones she had been using. Apparently, this one was a non-lethal dosage. It knocked the wind out of him. Three more cops fired at her through open windows. These three were also ruthlessly slaughtered without a moment's hesitation on Vera's part. "I've had it!" she yelled angrily.  
  
No one could believe what she did next. She walked into the police station and started killing everyone in sight (and then hunted down those who she couldn't see). That included cops, prisoners, secretaries, and innocent bystanders. She climbed the stairs up to the detective's bureau to take them out too.  
  
BANG!  
  
She turned around in surprise. Matthew had recovered. He walked in and fired another shot at her, not knowing what else to do. In response, she fired a blast at him. By some miracle he dodged it but then she then ripped one of the bars off of the handrail and tossed it at him with all her might. This time she was right on target. It hit him right in the head, knocking him out. Perhaps she assumed she had killed him. In any case she grinned and proceeded up the stairs to finish off the detectives. By the time the SWAT team showed up, she was gone. Matthew was the only one left alive in the entire building. An ambulance rushed him to the hospital.  
  
A doctor in the ER checked his pupils while Matthew held an ice pack onto his own head. "Well your pupils are normal. We should do an X-ray on your head, though. My, you are a lucky fellow. No one else made it out of there alive."  
  
"Do I look lucky to you?" asked Matthew. He lifted up the ice pack to reveal one very nasty bump on his head.  
  
Just then, he looked over and saw Jet and Ed coming in. Jet walked up to him. "Are you OK, son? I heard all about it and..."  
  
Jet never got a chance to finish. Ed practically jumped on Matthew and gave him about the most passionate kiss he'd ever had in his short life. Jet just stood there with his eyes wide and his mouth wide open.  
  
"What the hell is this?" asked Jet.  
  
Ed looked over and grinned. "Um...surprise."  
  
"Friends in the Village?"  
  
"He's a friend."  
  
"So I see..."  
  
"Am I fired?" asked Matthew.  
  
"Let's just say I'll be keeping a very, very, VERY close eye on you from now on," replied Jet. "You do anything to hurt her and you answer to lefty here." Jet pointed to his metal arm as he said this.  
  
"So what was that...thing?" asked Matthew in a desperate attempt to change the subject. I think he would have felt safer angering Vera than angering Jet.   
  
"We're not sure," replied Jet. "That woman may have been the result of a bio-enhancement project gone horrible wrong that ISSP conducted. I've already sent for a buddy of mine who might know more about it. In the meantime, you get some rest. I have a feeling we're going to need you very soon."  
  
"Vera...she told me her name was Vera," said Matthew.  
  
"That's fine," said Jet. "Now we at least have a name. You rest up now." Jet and Ed turned to leave and practically ran into a pair of detectives. They had been sent to get a statement from Matthew. Resting up would not be an option, not for the present, anyway.  
  
"Ed, why didn't you tell me?" asked Jet on their way out of the hospital.  
  
"Edward thought you wouldn't understand," she replied. "He's older and he's a bounty hunter. Edward thought you'd be mad."  
  
"There's nothing wrong with Matthew," replied Jet. "He's a good hardworking kid who put his butt on the line today for a bunch of total strangers. The only thing that makes me mad is you not being honest with me. Who knows, maybe this is partly my fault. Maybe I was too tough on him and either you or he got the idea I didn't like him and that I wouldn't approve. And I said some stuff to him I didn't mean."  
  
"Edward is sorry."  
  
"Yeah, well, I'm sorry too if I gave you guys the wrong idea," said Jet. The idea of Ed going out with Matthew really honestly didn't bug him. It was the idea of Ed going out with anyone. It hadn't been that long since she was that innocent little girl on the Bebop. Jet was beginning to think more and more like a father every day.  
  
Back at MFR, Lau was sitting on a couch in back holding the baby while Faye cleaned blood off his ear. "I really wish you would get this looked at," she said.  
  
"It's not bleeding bad enough to need stitches," he replied. "So are there by any chance any psychotic maniacs you guys HAVEN'T run across before?"  
  
"Mad Pierrot was sort of an exceptional case," said Faye. "Like Jet said, he tried to kill Spike just for looking at him. Of course that lunkhead just couldn't resist the challenge. I tried to keep him out of it and then tried to save him later but you know how stubborn he could be."  
  
"Look who's talking," replied Lau with a grin. Faye slugged him in the arm. "Ow! Hey, not when I'm holding the baby!"  
  
"Sorry," replied Faye. She took Julia out of his arms and then slugged him again. "Is that better?"  
  
Just then Jet walked in. He looked at his other two bounty hunters. "I have an assignment for you. It's a pimp in the Bronx. He killed one of his girls. Go get him."  
  
"We were kind of hoping to nail that lady who hurt Matthew," replied one of them.   
  
"We don't mess with her until we know for sure what we're dealing with," replied Jet. "In the meantime, I'm not paying you two to sit on your asses and do nothing. Now go."   
  
The two of them left without a word. Jet walked over to Lau and Faye. "Apparently she has a name: Vera. The bounty so far is eighty million. From everything the cops have gathered on her so far, she's a vigilante. Each time she kills, she only intends to target some criminal. But it seems that when she encounters even the slightest resistance, she goes into violent rages where anyone and everyone is her sworn enemy."  
  
"How's Matthew?" asked Lau.  
  
"Mild concussion," replied Jet. "They'll release him tomorrow. Man, he put up one hell of a fight, though."  
  
"Where's Ed?" asked Faye.  
  
"I sent her home, that is if she didn't sneak back to the hospital to see Matthew. Did you guy know they've been dating behind my back all this time?"  
  
"You're kidding me!" replied Faye. "Ed did that? I mean, I kind of suspected Matthew had a thing for Ed but I didn't know she had it in her to pull something off like that. I'll never look at her the same way again."  
  
That night, Faye sat on the deck of the Bebop looking at the sky. Part of her longed to be back in space. From here, she couldn't even see the stars. She started having flashbacks of what little mayhem she had witnessed from Mad Pierrot. That was terrifying enough.  
  
She climbed back down into the ship. She found Lau asleep on the couch. Poor man never got enough sleep. Since he was a far lighter sleeper than Faye, if the baby cried during the night, it would wake him up and he'd wind up seeing to her every single time. Faye had told him it would be OK if he nudged her and had her take care of it every so often but he wouldn't do it. Well tonight would be different she vowed. She decided she'd sleep in the baby's room that night.  
  
As dawn approached the next day, a ship from Venus arrived at JFK Airport. Two very familiar figures stepped out of it. They were none other than Bob and Fatty River. Jet came up to greet them as soon as he saw them in the terminal. "Bob, I can't tell you how grateful I am for you coming on such short notice. Fatty, I didn't expect to see you here."  
  
"Well Bob and I are business partners now," replied Fatty. "Where he goes, I go."  
  
"And that eighty million had absolutely nothing to do with it," joked Bob. "So Jet, let me get this straight. You think there was another subject of Project Tongpu that escaped and is going around killing off thugs right here in New York?"  
  
"That's the theory," he replied. "Pierrot wasn't the only one, was he?"  
  
"I'm not sure. Most of what the rest of us at ISSP heard about that project were just rumors. One of those rumors was that a small group of homeless teenagers from Tharsis were brought in voluntarily to be tested. Pierrot was what convinced them to stop. His modifications proceeded the farthest. But you know what happened. His damaged mind was enough to convince them that the risk was unacceptable. These kids were supposed to be trained killers with one function. If they couldn't keep their heads, what good were they? Pierrot was supposed to be taken to a research facility on Callisto to live out the rest of his days. We all know he escaped but rumor has it that the other subjects were also sent to that same facility."  
  
"Bob, this one is different," replied Jet. "This one is more powerful and she has a different goal. She goes on manhunts for violent criminals instead of police personnel."  
  
"But I thought she took out an entire police precinct," replied Fatty.  
  
"That's just the thing," said Jet. "She doesn't go after anyone else unless someone interferes. And then it's like she can't hold it in and has this urge to kill everyone around her."  
  
"You know what it sounds like to me, Jet," said Bob. "It sounds like one of those discontinued test subjects was obtained and further experiments were conducted. This one was specifically programmed to destroy violent criminals."  
  
"But I thought ISSP terminated the whole thing," said Jet.  
  
"Someone could have acted without their knowledge or authority. It would have to be someone who was arrogant enough to think that they could avoid the results they had with Pierrot. They avoided creating one sort of monster, only to create another. The sort of behavior that this woman has been taught wouldn't be condoned by ISSP even if they had been trying to create assassins so obviously they failed again."  
  
The Swordfish and Redtail were flying routes over New York. Lau and Faye were searching for Vera. "You know what this reminds me of?" asked Faye. "This reminds me of when we had to follow all those syndicate members around to find Lin. But this is much worse. There have got to be a million criminals in this town. Finding the one she'll target next would be like finding a needle in a haystack."  
  
"Finding her isn't what I'm quite as worried about," replied Lau. "If we do find her, how do we stop her? You said Pierrot could block bullets but not knives?"  
  
"That's right."  
  
"I wish I hadn't thrown my katana away. What are we supposed to do if we do find her? We should have put more thought into this."  
  
"There's something else," replied Faye. "Pierrot was psychologically unstable. Given the right stimulus, he could be incapacitated by his own fear. There's got to be something that will set her off too...I hope."  
  
In the parking lot at JFK, Jet loaded Bob and Fatty's things into the back of Lau's sedan. They climbed in and headed for Manhattan. "So besides that police station, who has this lady killed so far?" asked Bob.  
  
"They think her first victim might have been a rapist in Central Park," replied Jet. "Ed saw Vera just a few moments after the rapist was killed with his own knife. The next one was a car-jacker who pistol whipped some eighty year old woman that was reluctant to surrender her car. Poor lady spent nearly a month in a coma. I know that because we were trying to catch the car-jacker ourselves. The last guy she got was when that precinct got hit. She nailed a guy that two detectives were bringing in for molesting a bunch of girls at a day care center."  
  
"Wait a minute," said Fatty. "Does anyone but me notice a pattern? This Vera only seems to go after criminals who victimize females."  
  
"You may be on to something," replied Jet. All of the sudden he remembered something. "OH NO!"  
  
Lau and Faye were still on patrol when they saw something familiar. "Hey, aren't those two of our guys?" asked Faye.  
  
Sure enough, the two other young bounty hunters from MFR were chasing their pimp on the street below. Faye quickly descended and fired her net launcher trapping the pimp. The two bounty hunters smiled and waved in appreciation. She headed airborne again. Just then, a streak of green light flashed past her left side. When she looked back down, the pimp had been reduced to ash. Vera was floating in the air on Faye's left side.  
  
It didn't take more than a moment for the two bounty hunters on the street to realize that the woman in the air twenty feet above them who had just killed their bounty-head was the same one who had injured their friend. They immediately opened fire on her.  
  
"No wait!" screamed Faye over her loudspeaker. The bullets were blocked by Vera's force field. Two more blasts of green light killed the two young bounty hunters. All Faye could do was watch in horror. Just then, Vera turned her attention to the Redtail. Faye was terrified. She fired every weapon she had but not one of them even put a dent into Vera. Faye decided to take evasive maneuvers at once. She flew away from Vera as quickly as she could. Vera was fast enough to keep up with the Redtail at top speed, but not enough to overtake it. She fired blast after blast but Faye was an excellent pilot and dodged every one of them. Lau had seen how Faye's bullets and missiles had no effect on Vera at all. He got a lock on her with his plasma cannon and fired. Vera saw the blast coming at her but wasn't quite fast enough to completely dodge it. Nor was she able to block it with her force field. The blast sliced through her left shoulder, causing quite a bit of bleeding.  
  
Vera was furious. She tossed blast after blast at the Swordfish but Lau dodged every single one as Faye had. Just then, Vera flew straight at him. They were on a collision course. At the last moment, she veered off to her left and crashed her body into his right wing as hard as she could. The wing came off and Lau crashed onto the street below. Faye saw him emerge from the wreck shaken but otherwise unharmed.   
  
Just then, a familiar looking sedan showed up on the street below. Jet, Bob, and Fatty all jumped out. They watched in horror as Vera jumped onto the top of the Redtail and punched through it. She reached into the huge hole that she had created and pulled Faye out by her hair. The Redtail also crashed onto the street below. Vera floated in midair holding a terrified Faye by the hair. Faye was in terrible pain. Vera looked Faye straight in the eye and smiled that sick smile of hers. Her eyes glowed green again.   
  
Just then a brick hit Vera in the forehead. Jet had thrown it with his metal arm. He knew bullets wouldn't work and he didn't know what else to do. Vera dropped Faye. Luckily for her, Fatty's stomach broke her fall. The two of them picked themselves up only to witness Vera attacking Jet. She tossed another blast at him which he was not able to completely dodge. It hit his metal arm causing it to explode. Pieces of it flew everywhere, one of which cut Lau's arm. Sparks flew out of the stump of metal arm that was left.  
  
Vera raised one arm over her head. A green orb of energy appeared above her hand. Slowly the orb grew bigger and bigger as more energy was packed into it. As the orb grew, several police units showed up as well as a police helicopter. The orb immediately disappeared. Vera flew straight up and grabbed the helicopter by it's landing gear. She used two more blasts to destroy the two rotors. She swung the crippled helicopter around in the air and finally flung it down at the police units below. A gigantic explosion resulted. Pleased with her work, she raised her arm once again. The orb immediately re-appeared. It continued to grow until it was the size of a house. With a grin she tossed it to the street below. The police units that remained exploded. Every living thing in a two block radius was killed immediately.   
  
Lau never lost his head for a moment. When he realized what she was about to do, he signaled for everyone to run into the nearest subway entrance. The members of the Bebop crew along with Bob and Fatty were the only survivors.   
  
END OF ACT II  
  
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner 


	3. Act 3

ACT III  
  
"Come on, let Edward see," whined Ed. She had met Matthew at the hospital just as he was about to be released. She wanted to get a look at his stitches which were covered by a bandage.  
  
"I'm not taking this thing off," he replied. "You sure do have a fascination with sick things."  
  
"Careful what you say," she replied in a teasing voice. "Remember that you're one of the things Ed is fascinated with. So does that mean that you're sick? Are you? Huh?"  
  
Matthew had to suppress a snicker. What an odd girl he had fallen for. And yet there was something more human about Ed than anyone he knew. Just then, he heard a siren and an ambulance pulled up to the emergency room. To his and Ed's shock, Lau and the others emerged. All of them looked banged up and bruised, but none of them had life-threatening injuries.  
  
"Papa!"  
  
Ed was horrified to see Jet's metal arm blown to bits. Sure it was an artificial limb, but it still shocked her to see him like that. He had deactivated all of the circuits in the arm before emerging from the subway just in case there were any gas leaks. A spark could have ignited an entire city block.  
  
When Lau, Jet, and the rest had emerged from the subway it was a real mess on the surface. People were dead all over the place and property was destroyed. In comparison I suppose it doesn't matter much but the Swordfish and Redtail had been badly damaged. Lau's sedan was dented up pretty badly and all the windows were broken. When an ambulance showed up at the scene, there was no one left alive to transport except the Bebop crew. Even though their injuries were minor, they had been taken to the hospital anyway.  
  
"I'm all right, Ed," said Jet as he followed a man in a white coat to the elevator. "They're gonna fix me up with a new arm upstairs and I'll be good as new. In the meantime, go home." He entered the elevator and went up to the top floor.  
  
Another doctor was looking Lau over. "You'll need stitches for that gash on your arm," she said. "And what happened to your ear?"  
  
Lau looked over at Faye and grinned. He looked back at the doctor. "Well doc, fact of the matter is my wife beats me."  
  
"I'm sure you deserve it," replied the doctor with a grin as she lead him off to be stitched up.  
  
"Hey what about me?" called Fatty after her. "I know I look all right but I had a lady fall on my gut and she must weigh as much as a..." One angry look from Faye told him he'd better shut up right now or he'd really need a doctor.  
  
"You're fine, you wimp," replied Bob. "Except for some bruises, you and I are OK. I don't know why they even bothered bringing us here. Come on." He and Fatty sat down in the waiting room with Faye, Ed, and Matthew.  
  
Faye sat down and explained to Ed and Matthew what had happened. Matthew began to tremble as he realized just how fortunate he had been to have survived Vera. He knew she was dangerous, but he had no idea she had that kind of destructive capability.  
  
"She's not human!" said Matthew. "There's no stopping her."  
  
"She's human alright," replied Bob. "Someone created that monster and that someone either had ties to ISSP or was one hell of a kidnapper to get her out of a research facility without getting caught."  
  
"Ed's the best hacker on the planet," said Matthew. "If she couldn't find any computer records in the ISSP files on Vera then there probably are none."  
  
"Oh stop, you'll make Ed blush," replied Ed with a grin.  
  
"What I want to know is how she's finding all these victims," said Faye as she tried to quiet Julia.  
  
Just then Lau came out of the ER with his arm fixed. "So what now?" he asked. Everyone shrugged. "Damn, we need some kryptonite or something."  
  
"Right now we're just asking a lot of questions," said Faye. "One of which is, where is Vera finding her victims?"  
  
"Maybe she has access to the bounty hunter database," said Lau. "If she has an account on that, maybe Ed could find it."  
  
At that moment, Vera was lying face-down in the bell-tower of a church. She was in a lot of pain from her injuries. She couldn't believe that she had actually been hurt by these people. Didn't they understand that what she was doing was as necessary for her as breathing? It's miserable when no one can see the world through your eyes. Who could understand?  
  
"What are we supposed to do in the meantime?" asked Fatty. "We can't just sit back and let this woman kill while we try to find out who she is and how to stop her. You know the police won't just sit back and do nothing. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the thugs she's gone after but I can't sit back and watch cops get smoked."  
  
"We're caught between a rock and a hard place," said Lau. "She's shown complete invincibility to bullets and explosives. She does seem to have some vulnerability to plasma, though. But the only plasma weapon we have is on the Swordfish and that's in the shop right now. All we can do is wait and investigate right now. I don't like it any better than you do but we can't help anyone if we're dead. Bob, what is it?"  
  
Bob looked to be deep in thought. "As far as ISSP is concerned, Project Tongpu never existed. And yet they're the only ones who might be able to give us anything. Somehow we have to get them to talk about it. We have to try at the very least. Right now we've got nothing. We have to go talk to them."  
  
Fatty looked very displeased. "If you're going to Mars, then hurry the hell up and go. Vengeance doesn't wait long."  
  
"Bring Edward back a souvenir," said Ed.  
  
Lau was absorbing all of this slowly. "We're going to Mars? Now? Are you sure this won't be a wasted trip?"  
  
"No," replied Bob.  
  
"OK, I love this plan," replied Lau as he rolled his eyes and grinned.  
  
Lau hated the idea of going into space when the Swordfish and Redtail weren't ready yet. But he couldn't wait around. He decided to do something he would normally never do. He borrowed Jet's Hammerhead without his permission and loaded it onto the Bebop. Faye and the baby stayed on Earth while Lau and Bob took off for Mars.  
  
The trip to Mars in hyperspace is not a terribly long one. Lau was more than a little depressed about the deaths of those two other bounty hunters. He had hired them himself. "Hey Bob, I was just wondering how attached you and Fatty are to Venus."  
  
"We do alright there," he replied. "Why are you asking?"  
  
"Well, we lost those two employees and you and Fatty are a couple of the best cowboys in the business."  
  
"Thanks but no thanks," replied Bob. "I can't tell you how much I love being my own boss. There's nothing quite like it. Now tell me you didn't love being co-owner of MFR a million times more than being an employee."  
  
"You have me there," said Lau. "Man was meant to live free."  
  
Back in New York at the hospital, Jet was trying out his new arm. This one was gold in color. They gave him the option of a flesh-colored sleeve that could fit over it, making it look like a real arm, but he refused. As the doctor walked out of the room, Faye and Ed walked in.  
  
"Hey roomie," said Faye with a grin. "It'll be just like old times staying under the same roof as you again."  
  
"What are you babbling about?" asked Jet.  
  
"Bob and Lau went to Mars and took the Bebop, so Faye Faye is staying with us," said Ed.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Oh, and Lau borrowed the Hammerhead. Ed hopes that was OK."  
  
"What?!"  
  
The Bebop landed on Tharsis. Both Lau and Bob had to cram into the Hammerhead together. Bob practically had to sit on Lau's lap.  
  
"Bob, we will never speak of this to anyone."  
  
"Agreed."  
  
The two of them sped off to ISSP headquarters right away to speak to someone in the science division. But they couldn't even get an appointment with the research and special projects director. Explaining that this pertained to the killings in New York didn't help either.  
  
"Tell the director I have some information about a young lady in Tiajuana that his wife would be quite interested in," said Bob. The secretary wasted no time in locating her boss. "See? You have to know how to talk to these people."  
  
Suddenly Bob and Lau were surrounded by a group of men with machine guns pointed at them. "Yeah Bob, you really have to know how to talk to them," said Lau sarcastically.  
  
Back on Earth it was night. Faye paced up and down the short hallway in Jet's apartment trying to get the baby to stop crying. Crying infants were something Jet was certainly not used to. The only thing stopping him from complaining about it was a promise he had made himself a while back to try and stop being so grumpy. If Ed had been there they might have had better success in calming little Julia.  
  
At that moment, Ed was outside the airport with Matthew. The two of them were lying on their backs in the grass right outside the fence. Planes that took off or landed went directly over them. They could actually feel the wind. Ed squealed with delight practically every time one went overhead.  
  
"I'm glad I brought you here," said Matthew. "I used to come here a lot with my mom when I was a kid. She knew every single type of plane that was passing over us and could guess where they were headed with a lot of accuracy."  
  
"That's nice," said Ed. "It's nice you can remember your mother- person. All I remember about mine was that she called me Ed. Julia is lucky, you know that?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"She has Faye Faye to rock her and sing to her at night and tell her bedtime stories. Ed wishes her mama had not died."  
  
Matthew had never heard her talk like this before. He put his arm around her. "Wherever she is now, I know she still loves you and she's got to be just bursting with pride watching you. When I was up against Vera, I really thought I was going to cash in my chips right there and then. It really bothered me, you know?"  
  
"Ed knows. Who would want to die?"  
  
"But I think what bothers people about death the most is that they go through their day-to-day life and nothing really matters and then all of the sudden they meet that one special person. Someone who makes them want to live forever. Someone who makes the thought of dying almost unbearable. I thought about you. I thought about never seeing you again and it nearly ripped my guts out just thinking about it. You're the most unique and special person I've ever met in my life. I just wanted you to know that."  
  
Ed thought back and remembered Spike saying something like that about Julia. She never in her wildest dreams thought someone would care about her that much. She leaned over and kissed Matthew. "Ed thinks she's in love," she said very softly.  
  
Back at Jet's apartment, Faye was still having no luck. Little Julia was just too upset. "Why don't you let me take her and you get some sleep?" offered Jet.  
  
"You don't have to do that."  
  
"Well I'm not going to be getting any sleep until Ed comes home anyway," he replied. "So as long as I'm up, I'll keep an eye on her."  
  
"Jet, I really appreciate this. If I weren't so tired I'd feel guilty but I am so good-night."  
  
Faye fell asleep on the couch and Jet took Julia back to his bedroom. Ein came up and scratched on the door, so he opened it up just enough to let him in. Julia seemed fascinated with Jet's new arm. Jet looked at the little girl very carefully. "You know Ein, I always wondered what it would be like to have one of these of my own. Never happened though. The girl I came closest to marrying walked out on me. Aw, I guess a wife would have driven me crazy. I have no regrets. Still...my gosh, this kid has her mother's eyes doesn't she? Look at you, kiddo. Look at these little toes of yours. Look at them."  
  
Ein gave Jet an odd look. Jet continued talking softly to Julia. "I'm nearly forty now, you know that? When I think about all the stuff you'll have to go through before you get to be my age, it's almost depressing. But it has its good moments too."  
  
Julia reached up and grabbed hold of Jet's beard. "You have a strong grip for a little tyke, you know that? Must get it from your daddy. Gees, you're the only person who's ever sat there that long and listened to me without charging me five hundred wulongs an hour for therapy. I'm not boring you, am I?"  
  
Julia continued to stare into Jet's eyes. She sort of cocked her head to one side then straightened it back up again. "I'll take that as a no."  
  
Back on Mars, Bob and Lau were sitting in the director's office. "Well Bob and friend, to what do I owe the pleasure of this blackmail?" he asked.  
  
"You mean to tell me there really was a girl in Tiajuana?" said Bob. "Man, I was just taking a stab in the dark and hoping you'd go for it."  
  
"Bob, what do you want?"  
  
"OK look, I know about project Tongpu," replied Bob.  
  
"Never heard of it."  
  
"Cut the crap!" growled Lau.  
  
"I know I'm not supposed to know," continued Bob. "But you know how the rumor mill is at ISSP. No secret is safe."  
  
The director sighed. "Alright, you have me. Now what'll it take to keep you two quiet? And before you consider asking for a ridiculous amount, may I remind you I can make the two of you simply vanish."  
  
"Boy, you guys in ISSP really are something else!" yelled Lau angrily. "No wonder Jet wanted out."  
  
Bob was used to this kind of thing and kept his composure. "You misunderstood us. We came to get information. Right now, one of the subjects from that experiment is killing people left and right in New York."  
  
The director looked relieved but confused. "One of the subjects? There must be some mistake. There was only one subject. His current whereabouts are unknown. That must be your killer. If that's the case..."  
  
"No, we know about Pierrot and he's already dead," interrupted Lau. "It's a woman we're dealing with in New York."  
  
"Well then, it wasn't from Tongpu. We only had one subject and it was a failure."  
  
"Oh come on," replied Bob. "Everyone heard you brought in a bunch of homeless teens for that experiment."  
  
"True, but out of that group, we selected one and sent the rest away. I'm telling you, Pierrot was the only subject. But things went wrong."  
  
"Well duh," replied Lau.  
  
"Pierrot started showing mental regression," continued the director doing his best to ignore Lau. "His mind became more and more like that of a child. He started losing impulse control but the impulses he had were those of an adult and he possessed the strength of ten men. We had a very unfortunate incident with one of his nurses and not long after that we decided to cancel the project."  
  
"What happened to the nurse?" asked Lau. "Did he kill her?"  
  
"He raped her," replied the director. "She was furious and threatened to sue us."  
  
"Did she?"  
  
"The weirdest thing happened, she mysteriously disappeared." The director looked over at Bob. "Maybe I should rephrase that. It makes it sound like we did her in or something. She just didn't show up to work one day and we lost contact with her."  
  
Lau had a horrible feeling all of the sudden. "What was her name?"  
  
"Why would you want to know that?"  
  
"Just tell me!"  
  
"Let's see...I can't recall her last name but her first name...I think it was Vera..."  
  
"OH NO!"  
  
Ed came back into the apartment a little after midnight. She had totally lost track of the time and she hoped Jet wasn't about to yell at her. She walked over to his room and found the door open a crack. Jet was asleep and the baby was asleep on his chest. Yes it was a cute scene, but Ed was worried about what would happen if Jet rolled over in his sleep. She picked the baby up and put her in a playpen that she kept in the apartment for when she baby-sat. Ein had heard her come in and followed her. Ed kicked off her sandals and laid down on the living room love seat. Ein jumped up onto the arm of the couch. The two of them fell asleep right there.  
  
Lau was trying to explain the situation with Vera to the research director. "Black hair and green eyes? That sounds like her all right."  
  
"Is it possible that the biological alterations you made to Pierrot could be transmitted to another person through body fluids?" asked Lau.  
  
"I'm really not sure," replied the director. "There were still a lot of unanswered questions when he escaped."  
  
"Man, no wonder she targets men who victimize women," groaned Bob. "Both of them annihilate anyone who even reminds them of people who caused them trauma. And the urge is nearly irresistible. In Pierrot's case, he wanted to get back at ISSP. In Vera's case, it was violent men. But for some reason, she's more powerful than Pierrot was."  
  
"I can't explain that," said the director. "We never tested the effects of those agents on women. It's possible her hormones have made the alterations stronger within her. I can't say for sure."  
  
"So how do we stop her?" asked Lau.  
  
"If we knew that don't you think we would have stopped Pierrot from attacking all those ISSP officers? Tell me, how was Pierrot killed in the first place?"  
  
"It was one of those psychological triggers of his," replied Lau. "A mild injury with was inflicted on him and he over-reacted to the pain. In his hysterical reaction, he was accidentally crushed because he wasn't paying attention to anything else."  
  
"But Vera might not suffer the same weakness," said Bob. "She seems a lot tougher both physically and emotionally."  
  
"Then all I can tell you is that her shield merely protects her from bullets and explosions, nothing else," replied the director.  
  
"No other means of attack is fast enough," said Lau angrily. "I even had a lock on her with a plasma cannon on my ship and she managed to dodge most of the impact from that."  
  
"Honestly, there's nothing else I can tell you that would help you," said the director. "I've been as candid as I could considering the secrecy of project Tongpu. We created a monster so I feel responsible for every death she has caused. I shouldn't be telling you any of this, but I have to. Even then, I only know so much."  
  
"If you're really so set on redeeming yourself, maybe you could hand over some data on the project," replied Lau. "It couldn't hurt. If the right person analyzed it, they might find something helpful that you morons couldn't."  
  
"Wait a sec," replied the director. "You don't know what you're asking here. It's not like I keep that kind of information in my desk here. That's the most classified of the classified. Even Commissioner Stagler doesn't know about it."  
  
"Are those records being kept where I think they are?" asked Bob impatiently.  
  
"Of course," replied the director.  
  
"Am I missing something here?" asked Lau. "What are you two talking about?"  
  
"There's a secret facility where the corrupt underbelly of ISSP keeps its dirty laundry under lock and key," replied Bob.  
  
"They only keep stuff there that won't be destroyed; things that may have future use," said the director. "But they would never let me get at the files you want. If I even asked, some crooked cop would probably shoot me dead on the spot. Stagler didn't weed out all the bad apples. If he ever found out about the place I'm talking about, a lot of heads would roll."  
  
"You let us worry about that," replied Lau. "Now where is this place?"  
  
A new day was dawning on Earth. Vera woke up in her bell-tower. She shielded her eyes from the sun. Her arm still hurt badly. She decided not to go out that day. It had occurred to her that she needed to be at her peak. Someone had nearly gotten her. Perhaps she wasn't so invincible after all. She sat there as Mad Pierrot's evil laughter echoed in her head over and over again. It was nearly unbearable. In fury, she punched the bell, making it ring.  
  
The Bebop was docked in the Sea of Tharsis. Bob and Lau headed back there, praying that the information they had received was accurate. Both of them were exhausted and needed some shut-eye quite badly.  
  
Bob fell asleep on the couch right away. Lau headed off for his bedroom. Before going to sleep, he decided to contact Earth. Transmissions from that distance get a little garbled sometimes but he needed help.  
  
Back at Jet's apartment, Faye's communicator started beeping. She had left it on the coffee table in the living room. Ein heard the noise and nudged Ed awake. She picked up the communicator. "Lau? Is that you?"  
  
"Ed, are the Swordfish and Redtail fixed yet?"  
  
"The repair shop said they would be ready by today," she replied sleepily.  
  
"Good. Can the Falcon fly in space and hyperspace?"  
  
"Sure, but why..."  
  
"Ed I need you to listen," interrupted Lau. "I need you to send Jet, Faye, and either Matthew or Fatty up to Mars right away. They'll need to borrow your Falcon. Tell them to bring weapons and gear."  
  
"Is the psycho lady on Mars now?" she asked.  
  
"No, but if we're going to beat her, we need some reinforcement sent to Mars right away. Just trust me and do what I say."  
  
END OF ACT III  
  
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner 


	4. Act 4

ACT IV  
  
Ed was soon to discover that there's nothing quite like trying to get a group of people mobilized and travel several million miles without being able to provide a good reason. All she was able to tell them was that Lau needed them on Mars right away.  
  
Jet was still less than thrilled that Lau had swiped the Hammerhead. As promised, the Redtail and Swordfish were fixed on time. One advantage of living in a place like New York was not having to run off to Doohan's every time the Swordfish got busted. There were plenty of experienced mechanics who could work with old parts.  
  
It wasn't too long before Jet, Faye, and Fatty joined Lau and Jet on the Bebop. None of them knew why they were needed on Mars and none of them liked leaving Earth considering what havoc Vera might be unleashing at that moment. But they had learned to trust Lau by now.  
  
"Alright, so why are we here and why did we have to bring all the hardware?" asked Faye.  
  
"Don't tell me ISSP actually told you guys something," said Jet.  
  
"Sort of," replied Lau. "What we know so far is that Vera wasn't exactly part of the project."  
  
"What do you mean not exactly part of it?" asked Faye.  
  
Lau explained how Vera had been victimized by Pierrot and was thus exposed to whatever was in his system. Everything suddenly made so much more sense to everyone. "I have all the sympathy in the world for her," explained Lau. "But no way in hell can we just let her keep this up."  
  
"The problem is that even the research director didn't know exactly what the experimental team put in Pierrot's system," said Bob. "We need specific records from the actual experiment and there don't seem to be any online or Ed would have found them already. Jet, do you remember an old warehouse in Tharsis that the older cops used to call 'The Lockbox'?"  
  
"Sure," replied Jet. "Wait a minute...I hope you're not saying...no way, if the data we're looking for is in there then you can just forget it. No way those guys would ever let us within a thousand miles of that place."  
  
"Of course they won't LET us in," replied Lau. "We'll just have to crash the party. Thus the need for the hardware."  
  
"You're crazy," said Jet. "Do you have any idea what we'd be up against?"  
  
"No and I rather you didn't tell me so I don't get tempted to chicken out," replied Lau. "What I do know is what we're up against on Earth if we don't get that info. You guys managed to raid a syndicate headquarters. This should be relatively easy by comparison. Besides, I don't see any other options here."  
  
"Do I get hazard pay for this?" asked Fatty with a grin.  
  
"Hazard pay?" Jet couldn't believe his ears. "Either one of two things will happen. We show up and they shoot us or we show up and they torch every single document inside before we can get what we need...oh you're not going to listen to me are you? Aw hell, let's do this."  
  
That night, a delivery truck pulled up to what looked like an abandoned warehouse on Tharsis. Lau was in the driver's seat wearing a gray suit. As he pulled closer to the building, a man in blue jeans and a flannel shirt approached. He tapped on Lau's window. As soon as he opened it, the guy pointed a gun at Lau. "This facility is closed. I suggest you leave."  
  
In response, Lau produced a police badge that once belonged to Bob. "I'm a little new at this, but I ran into some trouble and some buddies of mine told me to come here."  
  
"What's in the truck?" asked the guard suspiciously.  
  
"Some surveillance disks. Not enough to fill the whole truck of course, but I figured a delivery truck wouldn't get searched."  
  
"I'll have to take a look," replied the guard. He headed to the back and opened the doors. Faye, Bob, Jet, and Fatty were back there. Faye shot the guard. Lau immediately hit the gas and crashed the truck through the warehouse doors. As soon as the truck came to a halt inside, everyone jumped out the back.  
  
"I thought you said this place would be crawling with guards," said Faye to Jet. "So far we've only seen one."  
  
Just then, a shot rang out which hit the truck, followed by several others. The Bebop crew scattered for cover. One bullet hit the gas tank, causing the truck to explode. Lau looked around him but it was hard to see who was shooting. The lighting was poor. Just then, Fatty yelled out. A bullet hit him in the back. Lau caught a glimpse of the guy who had fired and shot him. Jet fired a flare, exposing two others who were promptly shot by Bob and Faye.  
  
"Dammit, why don't you people ever listen to me?" yelled Jet. "I warned you about this place!"  
  
"Shut up and keep shooting!" hollered Faye.  
  
Just then, Lau notice a figure in a trench coat run in through where the doors had been. Something told him not to shoot at this guy. The guy in the coat ran over to a panel and flipped a switch. All at once, the whole place was lit up. It was the director! He fired at a man standing on a crate directly above Lau. Lau had never heard him coming. He gave the director a smile. Just then, a shot hit the director in the chest. Jet fired several shots in the direction it came from. Upon hearing a groan, Jet figured he hit the shooter. He was right.  
  
At that point, all was silent. Jet and Bob searched the building quickly to see if there were any more. Lau ran over to the fallen director. "You asked me if I really wanted to redeem myself," he said to Lau in a weak voice. "Does this answer your question?" Lau nodded. "God forgive me..." The director's eyes closed for the last time.  
  
"Ah!"  
  
Lau had completely forgotten about Fatty. Faye was trying to keep him from moving but in his pain, he wasn't thinking clearly. "You want to end up paralyzed?" asked Faye. "Just stay still, dammit!"  
  
Just then, Jet and Bob returned holding a disk and file of papers. "I think this is what we came for," said Jet. "I can't promise that. We have to get out of here right away. How's Fatty?"  
  
Fatty groaned in response. Jet lifted up Fatty's shirt and looked at the exit wound. "It's too far to the left to have hit the spine. We're gonna have to carry him out of here. And no jokes about how much he weighs. There's no time. Everyone grab a limb and let's move it."  
  
Everyone regretted the loss of the delivery truck right away. They had to carry Fatty a couple of blocks up the road to Doc's office. "This won't be some simple patch up job," we warned. "This is serious surgery and it'll take me and my nurse at least three hours and it's going to use up a lot of equipment. Sorry Jet, but this one won't be free."  
  
"I understand," replied Jet. "Thanks for doing this, Doc."  
  
"Hey, where would I be without you guys?" replied Doc. "Out of business, that's where."  
  
The Bebop crew simply had to sit and wait. They could hear sirens down the block as police units showed up at the warehouse. All of them were nervous that any minute now, a cop would come walking into the office looking for them.  
  
"We should have let the cops raid that place," muttered Faye. "All that killing..."  
  
"That would have been the worst thing we could have done," replied Bob. "Someone would have tipped off the guards and by the time the police arrived, the warehouse would be on fire and the guards would be long gone."  
  
Lau was trying to look over the data in the folder. "Jet, this might as well be written in Pig Latin. I can't understand any of this."  
  
"Well don't look at me," replied Jet.  
  
"I guess we could have Ed translate it for us when we get back," said Faye.  
  
Jet shook his head. "Her expertise is mostly computers. This is advanced bio-chemistry."  
  
Just then, Doc came out of his office. "Well, he lost about a quarter of his left kidney and a couple pints of blood, but he'll be OK."  
  
Suddenly, Lau had an idea. "Hey Doc, how would you like to make a few extra wulongs?"  
  
"For what?"  
  
"There's some data we'd like you to look over."  
  
While Fatty rested up in Doc's examining room, Doc looked over the data they had retrieved from the warehouse. He was astounded. "This is amazing."  
  
"What is it?" asked Faye.  
  
"Nano machines," he replied. You had better believe that caught Faye and Jet's attention. "Had the subject been given chemical treatments, they would have passed out of the body eventually. What was injected instead were a variety of nano machines. These are highly advanced and capable of using raw materials from the host's body to reproduce themselves. Several of them are designed to effect the nervous system. These have two purposes. For one thing, they do wonders for the senses, reflexes, and movement. Another set of them affect the patient psychologically, making them more aggressive."  
  
"That set must have been defective," replied Lau. "So far they've induced madness in every subject."  
  
"Some of these nano machines are prototypes," said Doc. "The booklet makes some rather outrageous claims."  
  
"Like what?" asked Faye.  
  
"It claims some of them can create energy shields outside the body, and this one here supposedly can cause flight," replied Doc "You've actually seen this?"  
  
"Sure have," replied Lau.  
  
Doc shook his head. "It's like something out of Frankenstein. People shouldn't be tampering that much with the human body."  
  
"Could these machines be passed on through body fluids?" asked Lau.  
  
"From the data here, I would guess that they could be passed through the blood into other systems," said Doc.  
  
"Would they have a different effect on women than on men?" asked Bob.  
  
Doc shrugged. "I don't suppose the data says anything about disabling the machines, does it?" asked Jet.  
  
"Nope. I suppose a protein inhibitor therapy might work. But that's a long-term solution."  
  
"Look Doc," said Lau. "The fact is that we're trying to catch a woman who has these things inside of her. She's gone completely nuts and people are getting hurt. Isn't there anything in there that could tell you how we could stop her?"  
  
"You mean other than getting injected with this stuff yourself?" asked Doc. "It would be tough. The senses react ten times more quickly under the effects of the nano machines. As soon as a bullet or explosive device is detected by one of the five senses it triggers an involuntary reaction which raises the shield. It's programmed to respond to those two particular stimuli. Any other perceived attack will activate the nerves causing either a flight or attack that is faster and packs more strength than a human being could normally muster."  
  
"Great," replied Jet sarcastically. "Now all we have to do is disable all five of her senses at once and she'll be at our mercy. What the hell was ISSP thinking making this in the first place?"  
  
"All five of her senses at once?" remarked Faye. "Maybe if she were unconscious..."  
  
"And how would we knock her out?" interrupted Jet.  
  
"You're right, bad idea," replied Faye.  
  
"Sorry I couldn't be of more help," replied Doc. "I was just about to leave for the night and my van's parked outside. I'd be glad to give you guys a lift back to your ship. Unless of course you have your heart set on carrying your friend all the way back there."  
  
Back on Earth, Vera hadn't left her belltower all day long. As afternoon approached she saw a young girl roller skating on the street below. The girl tried to make a jump from the street to the sidewalk and tripped on the curb. She landed face first on the pavement and began to cry pitifully but no one was around to comfort her. Vera descended down to the street behind the girl and picked her up. "You hurt sweetie? Don't worry, I'm a nurse."  
  
The girl looked up at her. "Mama said I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."  
  
"That's good advice for a little girl," replied Vera. "But when you get to be my age sometimes you don't know anyone anymore and everyone is a stranger. You can't just not talk to anyone, can you?" The girl wasn't quite sure she understood what Vera had said but it seemed to make sense so she nodded. Vera picked the girl up in her arms and, to the girl's astonishment, flew back up to the belltower.  
  
Over at the MFR office, no one was left to man the place except for Ed and Matthew. Ein sat by a window watching the people go by and Julia was being kept in a car seat on top of Jet's desk. Matthew sighed as he looked at the two empty chairs around the break table that his buddies used to occupy.  
  
Meanwhile, the Bebop was racing back to Earth. Fatty was in a lot of pain. Lau read over Doc's notes again and again. "Please don't tell me that whole trip was a waste," he said to himself. "Please tell me I didn't risk the lives of my wife and friends for nothing. There just has to be something useful here."  
  
On the belltower, Vera was cleaning up the girl's cuts and scrapes. The girl stared at her in awe. "Hey lady, where did you learn to fly?"  
  
"I didn't learn it," she replied. "It's no different than a scar. Something left over from something painful. I know you don't understand what I'm saying but that's how it has to be."  
  
The girl was silent for a moment. She studied Vera's face. "How come you're so sad?" she asked. "Is it because everyone is a stranger? Is that what happens when you can fly?"  
  
"You're a pretty sharp kid," replied Vera. "I trusted people and I got hurt because of it. And now everyone's a stranger because I could never trust anyone again. And now I'm not really anybody anymore. It's a tightrope, kid. If you trust people, they'll hurt you bad. If you don't you won't be anybody. But maybe if someone could make the bad people in the world go away then people could trust each other again without getting hurt. Then you could go ahead and talk to all the strangers you want and nothing bad would ever happen. That's the only way I can ever be a real person again."  
  
"You look real to me."  
  
"Thank you," replied Vera. She picked the girl back up and took her back down to the sidewalk. "Now you run along. I have things to take care of." The girl began to walk away. When she looked back, Vera was nowhere to be seen.  
  
The Bebop landed in the East River and docked there. An ambulance met them at the pier. They had radioed ahead for someone to come and pick up Fatty. As night fell, Jet called the office. Ed answered the phone. "Ed, it's me. Did you get any business while we were gone?"  
  
"No," she replied. "Not so much as a shoplifter."  
  
"That's just as well," said Jet. "We're back. The Bebop's over at the pier right now. Why don't you and Matthew come over here and we can all have dinner together."  
  
"Edward's not very hungry," she replied. "It's too sad and lonely around here now. Besides...none of you can cook."  
  
"We'll get take-out," said Jet. "Come on over. Even if you're not hungry, I haven't seen much of you the past few days and I miss my little girl. Come on, don't you want to see your old dad?"  
  
Ed smiled. "Yes papa, Edward misses you too."  
  
"And anyway, someone has to bring the baby back to Faye and Lau. So come on over."  
  
"OK, you convinced Edward."  
  
Matthew drove Ed, Ein, and Julia over to the Bebop. Jet still had Ed's Falcon so there was no other way for her to get there. The invite was also Jet's little way of showing Matthew that he had nothing against him.  
  
Just as they arrived at the ship, they saw a pizza delivery boy leaving. On the ship, Faye was overjoyed to have Julia back. She barely touched her food and spent most of the time playing with Julia. Ed loved watching the two of them together. Lau barely touched his food either. He was too busy reading the notes for probably the hundredth time. Finally he threw them down on the coffee table in disgust. "The hell with this. Maybe tomorrow something will come to me, but right now I'm drawing a blank here. I may as well call it a night and eat something."  
  
"That's the spirit," said Bob with a grin as he reached for his third slice of anchovy pizza. He noticed Ed staring at him. "What?"  
  
"How can you eat a pizza with little dead fishies on it?" she asked.  
  
"Are you kidding?" he replied. "This stuff is the best. Come on, you have to try one." He held one up to Ed and she nearly turned green just looking at it. "Suit yourself," he said as he ate that one too.  
  
Lau ate a couple of slices and then went over to take the baby from Faye so she could eat something. Jet picked up the notes when he wasn't looking and headed off for the control room. Matthew followed him in. Jet looked up from the notes and saw Matthew come in.  
  
"I don't want to put any more pressure on Lau but if these notes can't help us, then we have a problem," he said.  
  
"What happened on Mars?" asked Matthew.  
  
"We raided a secret storage facility to get this information on Vera's enhancements," replied Jet. "The problem is that there were some casualties on both sides. I know Lau. It'll drive him crazy thinking blood was shed for no good reason. But it would make a world of difference to him if the stuff we found can help us stop Vera. Truth be told, if this doesn't help us then that trip and all that happened really was a waste."  
  
"You want me to look it over?" asked Matthew.  
  
"You know anything about nano machines?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then you wouldn't be much help. Thanks for offering though." Matthew turned and walked back towards the living room. "Hey!" Matthew turned around. "I want you to know something, kid. First of all, you've done a great job for us and second of all I don't have a problem with you seeing Ed."  
  
Matthew went back to the living room. "It's getting late," he said to Ed. "We should get going. I'll give you and Ein a ride home."  
  
"Wait, we brought back the Falcon," said Lau. "Weren't you going to take that back?"  
  
Ed thought for a moment. "True, but then Ed wouldn't get to ride home with Mr. Studmuffin here. Ed can pick it up later. Let's go, cutie."  
  
"Mr. Studmuffin?" repeated Faye as she watched them go. "It's official. The Ed I knew is gone."  
  
Matthew drove through the Manhattan streets towards Jet and Ed's apartment. As he drove down one side street, he noticed a pedestrian standing under a street light. He pulled the car into the next alley he saw.  
  
"Why are we stopping?" asked Ed. "Oh Edward gets it. Good make-out spot." She wrapped her arms around him.  
  
"I'd love to, but not now," he replied. "I just saw a twenty million bounty head a block behind us. I could use some back-up. I know Jet won't be happy about this, but you think you could help me grab this guy?"  
  
"Ooh, Edward will help!" she replied excitedly. "But what is this guy wanted for anyway?"  
  
"He's a virus expert," said Matthew. "His name is Thomas McMahon. He released a virus into a subway last year. Fifteen people almost died. They say this guy can construct any kind of virus he wants."  
  
"Well the only type of virus Ed knows about is the computer type. If we go after this guy, could he make us sick?"  
  
"Probably not," replied Matthew. He and Ed got out of the car and opened the trunk. A couple of utility belts labeled "ISSP" were sitting in back. Each belt had bounty hunting supplies and one semi-automatic with extra clips. The two of them stepped out of the alley and into the shadows. They crept up to McMahon. Unfortunately they didn't creep quietly enough. He heard them and started running. They chased him down the street towards a parking garage. They couldn't see him when they entered.  
  
"If he's in here, then this is the only way out," said Matthew. "I'll start searching. You guard the exit. He wouldn't be able to leave without going through here."  
  
Matthew drew his gun and started searching between cars. Just then, Ed heard an engine starting on the level above them. A small sports car came flying down the ramp and towards the exit. Ed drew her gun. Jet had probably taken her target shooting over a hundred times but she never had to aim at a moving target before. She fired several shots at the tires, one of which found its mark. The car flipped over. I'm not entirely sure she didn't have her eyes closed the whole time she was shooting, but oh well.  
  
McMahon wasted no time at all. Even upside down he managed to extract himself from the car fairly quickly. No sooner had he gotten out than he found himself face to face with Ed. She wasn't lying when she said Applederry had taught her to fight. And this was a guy who could beat Spike. She punched McMahon right in the gut. He threw a kick at her which she dodged. While his one leg was still in the air she kicked his other leg sending him to the pavement.  
  
He picked himself up fairly quickly and tried to run back up to the upper level. Just then, Matthew appeared. He pulled out a bolo and tossed it towards McMahon. It wrapped around his legs and he fell. Matthew wasted no time in running up to him and cuffing him.  
  
Ed approached with a smile. "Edward is good at this, right?"  
  
Matthew grinned. "Edward is great at this. If Jet knew how good you were, maybe he'd change his mind...On second thought, no. He's a parent."  
  
"I'm only worth twenty million!" yelled McMahon. "I'll give you thirty million to let me go!"  
  
"Not gonna happen," replied Matthew. "Besides, I think my friends may very well have a use for you."  
  
END OF ACT IV  
  
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner 


	5. Act 5

ACT V  
  
Jet showed up at the police station where Ed and Matthew had taken McMahon. "You two had better have a damn good explanation for this!" he said angrily.  
  
"There was no time to wait for back-up," explained Matthew.  
  
"And so you risked my daughter's life because twenty million wulongs might get away?" asked Jet angrily. "I thought you loved her. You sure aren't acting like it."  
  
"It wasn't about the money, papa," said Ed. "Matthew had an idea." She whispered something in Jet's ear.  
  
"Things are getting crucial," said Matthew. "I figured it might be the only way to put a stop to this."  
  
"I'll admit, that is pretty clever," replied Jet. "But you should have at least called for back-up and if he tried to leave before we showed up, then and only then should you have gone ahead and did what you did."  
  
"Sorry sir," replied Matthew. "I hadn't thought of that. But Ed was magnificent out there. You should have seen her."  
  
"I'm glad I didn't," replied Jet. "I would have been terrified. Come on Ed, let's go home." The two of them left. A policeman approached Matthew and gave him his bounty. He barely noticed. He was too busy watching Ed leave.  
  
Back at their apartment, Ed was pleading her case to Jet. "Ed can do this. Ed caught that guy, didn't she?"  
  
"Beginner's luck," said Jet angrily.  
  
"And there was the guy in the park, and there was that fake doctor, and there was one more you don't know about."  
  
"When was that?" asked Jet.  
  
"When Ed was thirteen she caught a mushroom dealer," she replied. "Ed is a lot bigger and tougher now. Why won't you give Ed a chance?"  
  
"Ed, take a look at my face," said Jet. "You ever notice how messed up it is near this eye? That didn't come from my police work, it came from a bounty head. In the time I've been doing this line of work I've been stabbed twice, shot three times, and pushed out of a third story window. And I'm a lot bigger than you are. Now look, this is the life I chose for myself and I can live with it. But I wanted something better for you. Something safer."  
  
"You mean something boring," she replied. "What did you want Edward to do? Go have a nine to five white collar job in some office where I'd waste my life in boredom? That's just not Edward. Edward has always been different than everyone else. You know that better than anyone. When Edward caught that guy it just felt so right."  
  
Jet was silent. Ed decided she had said enough and went off to bed.  
  
The next morning, Lau and a young man in a three-piece suit entered the police station where Ed and Matthew had brought McMahon. They spoke to the desk sergeant and were led to a small room with a table and some chairs and nothing else. "We'll bring him right up," said the sergeant.  
  
Within a few minutes, McMahon was brought in and sat down across from them. "What's this all about?" he asked. "Who are you two?"  
  
"I'm Assistant District Attorney Michael Simmons," replied the man in the suit. "This fellow here is Lau Xiang, a representative of the fugitive recovery firm that caught you last night."  
  
"Yeah? Well I have nothing to say to you two without a lawyer."  
  
"So call your lawyer," replied Simmons. "I think he'd be quite interested in hearing the offer we have for you."  
  
"What kind of offer?" asked McMahon.  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know," replied Lau. "We can't tell you that now. You lawyered up, remember? We can't really say anything to you now. Unless of course..."  
  
"Alright, I get it," replied McMahon. "Forget the lawyer. Now what do you two want? Or better yet, what are you guys willing to do for me?"  
  
"You know full well we have an open and shut case against you," replied Simmons. "We could put you away for a very long time. However, if you do a little something for us, I can see to it that you get lifetime probation. I can only do that because luckily, none of your victims died."  
  
"I'm liking this," replied McMahon. "But what exactly did you have in mind when you said you wanted me to do a little something? You don't want me to rat someone out do you? Because if you do, I know people who scare me a lot more than Attica."  
  
"It's nothing like that," replied Lau.  
  
"This is going to sound like an odd request," said Simmons. "The fact of the matter is we would like you to design a very specific virus for us."  
  
"This is a joke, right?" replied McMahon."  
  
"No, this is a last resort," replied Lau.  
  
"Mr. McMahon, I can assure you, we are quite serious," said Simmons. "We believe that a certain type of virus may be the only way of stopping someone who has posed a grave danger to the people of this city. The DA reluctantly agreed with me that stopping this public menace is a bigger priority than locking you up."  
  
"What kind of virus do you want me to make?" asked McMahon.  
  
Lau handed him all of the information they had acquired on Mars along with Doc's notes. "Some recreational reading for you," he said. "Find something that could counteract that stuff."  
  
"You will also have to sign a confidentiality agreement," said Simmons. "And one more thing, whatever you make can't hurt anyone else. If that's not possible, the DA won't approve the deal."  
  
"It would be easy to infect and disable someone who had all this hardware," said McMahon. "Designing something that won't effect anyone else would be a lot tougher. I'd need just the right type of materials to work with; stuff that's tough to come by."  
  
"Like what?" asked Lau.  
  
"Well..."  
  
A few minutes later, Simmons and Lau left the police station. "Thank God that went well," said Simmons. "Lau, I haven't seen you in years. Not since I left San Francisco to attend college out here. How's your mother doing?"  
  
"She's fine," replied Lau. "But now she's trying to get me and Faye to move to California. Now that she finally has the granddaughter that she always wanted, she wants to see her all the time."  
  
"Well, I have to get back and report all this to the DA," said Simmons. "It sure was great seeing you again though."  
  
"Mike, I can't thank you enough for helping us out like this," said Lau. "Without your help, there would have been no chance of ending this at all."  
  
The two shook hands and parted. Lau headed back to the Swordfish which was parked nearby. He activated the communicator. "Jet? It went over just fine. We're just about all set."  
  
Vera was sitting at a computer terminal in the library of a local community college. She hung out there quite frequently. She was a pretty good hacker herself and often hacked into other websites. She always knew how to hack into the school's mainframe when she was done to erase all traces of her activity. Some of her favorite online destinations were local news, local law enforcement, court reports, and of course, the solar system bounty database. This was how she hunted for her victims. The bounty hunter database always had specific details about violent criminals. She could always tell who had victimized women in the area.  
  
Just as she was about to leave, a new case popped up on the federal court website. A serial killer was being brought to federal court in New York to answer charges for murder. Upon a closer look, she saw that this particular killer had a thing for sneaking into college dorms at night and killing coeds. He had been granted a change of venue and was on his way to New York now. Vera's green eyes burned with rage. She couldn't wait to slaughter this little slug.  
  
What Vera didn't realize was that this serial killer she was drooling over was a figment of Faye's imagination. Ed had hacked into the court site and placed what Faye had told her to put in. Ed also put in a program that would prevent the system administrators from being able to erase the faulty data for forty-eight hours.  
  
"That's perfect, Ed," said Faye. "This will lure her away from any real criminals and put her right where we want her."  
  
"You think she'll see this, Faye Faye?" asked Ed.  
  
"Count on it," replied Faye. "She had to have been getting her information from somewhere unless those nano machines made her psychic or something."  
  
Over on Staten Island, McMahon was hard at work in a research lab. Lau and two cops were keeping him under close supervision. "Is that stuff I gave you working?" asked Lau.  
  
"I don't know yet," replied McMahon. "I need a replica of the nano machines to see for sure."  
  
Lau nodded to a man in a white lab coat. The man handed McMahon a closed glass vial. "This is a sample of the machines," he said. "We reproduced every single one of them exactly right down to the last detail."  
  
"Great," replied McMahon. "OK fellas, everyone cross your fingers. I'm going to test this stuff right now." Everyone gathered around him eagerly. "Success! It works like a charm."  
  
"Thanks McMahon," replied Lau. "If it weren't for the fact that you're a homicidal wacko, I'd buy you a steak dinner right now."  
  
The next day a motorcade of US Marshals drove through the Manhattan streets towards the Federal Courthouse. At least they appeared to be US Marshals. A van that was supposed to contain the prisoner was being driven by Lau. Other cars were being driven by Faye, Matthew, Bob, and Jet. A real squad car with two real cops followed the motorcade. All Lau needed to do to enlist their help was to offer them a chance to help nail a cop killer. Ed flew around overhead in the Falcon. She was trying to stay out of sight but was watching the skies for any sign of Vera. Everyone hoped she would show up before they actually reached the courthouse or they would have to drop the act and go home. All of the sudden...  
  
"Ed sees her! She's coming!"  
  
"Where is she?" yelled Lau into the radio. He was about to get an answer to that one. All of the sudden, a green blast of energy struck the street in front of him. A piece of pavement flew through the windshield, missing him by inches.  
  
Everyone followed the plan precisely. Lau bailed out of the van right away. The cops as well as Bob, Jet, Matthew, and Faye all drove off quickly in different directions.  
  
Another energy bolt came from the sky and struck the van which was continuing down the street without a driver. It exploded. Lau looked up and saw Vera. He aimed his Glock and fired so as to get her attention. He wanted her to stay and fight. If she left, all was lost. Luckily, Vera took the bait.  
  
Lau's bullet hit her shield. It seemed to her that the bullet shattered upon impact. That was odd because normally a bullet would be stopped and then drop to the ground. She landed in front of Lau and glared at him angrily. "You again?"  
  
"Yeah, me again," he replied with a smirk.  
  
"This was a set-up, wasn't it? You're not a Marshall."  
  
Lau grinned. "My, you're perceptive." He immediately opened fire on her firing round after round continuously. Each one hit the shield and shattered.  
  
Vera grinned triumphantly. "Well that was pointless. I hope you don't feel too stupid."  
  
Lau responded by firing one more bullet. This one hit her right in the arm. She grabbed her arm and groaned. "What? How...how did you do that?" She tried to create an energy bolt only to see it fizzle out before taking shape. "What have you done to me?!"  
  
Lau grinned. "It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the same nano machines that created your force field also created your energy bolts. They were so similar in appearance that it was hard to miss. Those bullets were loaded with a virus that was meant to disable those nano machines that made the shield. As the bullets shattered on the shield, you breathed the virus in."  
  
"That's impossible!"  
  
"Not really," replied Lau. "The virus was made with a very special ingredient: a sample of my blood. Thanks to my wife, ever since my wedding night my blood has been filled with a protein substance that can counteract nano machines. Oh, and your flight ability is gone too." Lau reloaded his gun. "Now why don't you be a nice little psycho and put your hands up? Your bounty is up to one hundred fifty million and I'd like to collect it as soon as possible."  
  
Vera may have lost some of her supernatural abilities but her enhanced speed and strength were alive and well. She immediately kicked the gun out of Lau's hand before he could even pull the trigger. He took up an aikido stance and tried to fight her. He charged at her several times but none of his blows connected. It was as pitiful as that time Spike tried to fight Applederry.  
  
Vera grinned and started smacking him around. She wasn't hitting him too hard. The point here was to antagonize him. Killing him could come later. "You just couldn't mind your own damn business could you?" she growled. "I was doing this city, this state, this planet and the general human population a favor by eliminating those freaks."  
  
Lau wiped some blood off his face. "I know what happened to you," he said. "No matter how many people you kill it will never ever affect the guy that violated you. He's already dead."  
  
"SHUT UP!" she yelled angrily as she kicked him in the gut. "You men are all carnivores. All you see when you look around you are opportunities for pleasure and opportunities for letting out some aggression. Women are all either sex objects or punching bags to you. OR BOTH!"  
  
Lau struggled to breathe. That kick had knocked the wind out of him. He tried to sweep her legs but she jumped over his kick and back-handed him. He reached up and grabbed her face with his metal hand before she could react. He grabbed hard and threw her to the curb.  
  
The second she was down he grabbed his gun off the pavement. He fired at her but she was even better at dodging bullets than Vicious. She leapt behind a parked car and produced two guns of her own. Lau dived behind another car on the other side of the street. All of the sudden, machine gun fire could be heard from above. It was Ed. "Ed, get out of here!" screamed Lau into his radio. The Falcon flew in a circle overhead as Ed continued raining down gunfire onto Vera.  
  
Vera angrily fired back. She missed and Ed retaliated by firing a small rocket. Vera dodged it and the car she had been ducking behind exploded. Vera raced down the street looking for cover. She fired nearly continuously at Lau as she did so. "Ed, now's you chance to escape," yelled Lau into his radio. "She's distracted. Get out of here!"  
  
This time Ed obeyed. Lau reloaded again and went after Vera. She ran right into traffic. She wasted no time in opening an unlocked car door and tossing the driver out. Lau raced up made a flying leap onto the roof that would have rivaled any Olympic track star. Vera took off. She hadn't heard him land on the roof. Just then the driver side window was broken and Lau fired a shot. He couldn't see where he was shooting so he missed. Vera fired a couple of shots through the roof. She too missed but Lau realized she wouldn't miss for long. He jumped off the roof and landed in a pile of garbage bags by the curb. Vera rear-ended the car in front of her. The driver got out angrily. "Hey, what's the big idea?!" he yelled. Vera quickly shot out his windows in reply. "Never mind!" he replied in terror. "I have insurance."  
  
Vera apparently decided to stop running and face Lau. He had to find another parked car to duck behind as she opened fire on him again. He shot back but missed every time. The traffic on the street cleared out real quick.  
  
Just then, the two of them simultaneously ran out of ammo. Vera threw down her guns. Lau dropped his own and resumed his aikido stance. Vera grinned. "You bore me. Let's end this." She produced a machete and slowly advanced upon Lau. "I don't care how good you are. I'm way too fast for you. No way are you not about to get sliced up."  
  
When she was only a couple feet away, Lau pulled a capped pen out of his pocket. "What's this?" asked Vera. "You want to write your will or something?"  
  
"The pen is mightier than the sword," replied Lau.  
  
BANG!  
  
It wasn't a pen. It was a small device that was capable of firing one single bullet. Lau had put the cap of a pen over the bullet to conceal it. Vera could only dodge a bullet if she had some indication it was coming ahead of time. The shot caught her completely off guard and hit her in the chest. She fell to the sidewalk.  
  
She looked up at Lau. For the first time in a long time that sick hateful look was gone from her face. "It's alright," she said weakly. "I never belonged in this world anyway. I couldn't be a real human being anymore. You know what I mean?"  
  
Lau nodded. "Yeah, I know," he said quietly. Vera closed her eyes and breathed her last. Dozens of squad cars showed up from all directions. Lau sat down on the sidewalk and stared off into space.  
  
About a week later it was business as usual at MFR. Faye angrily punched the air conditioner. "Are we ever going to get this thing fixed?" she asked angrily.  
  
"The air conditioner people have canceled our appointment several times," replied Jet. "It may have something to do with the fact that you threatened them over the phone."  
  
Lau sat at his desk deep in thought. Faye came over and rubbed his back. "You OK?"  
  
Lau nodded. "You know what?" he said. "I'm sick of not having air conditioning too. Let's just go out and buy a new unit."  
  
Ed and Matthew were sitting on the floor nearby watching Julia tug on Ein's ears. Ein was very gentle and patient around children so he gave no objection but gave Ed a look as if to say "Make her stop! Please!"  
  
Ed picked up Julia. "OK, no more tugging on the doggie's ears," she said.  
  
"Ed, Lau and I are going out to look for a new air conditioner," said Faye. "Keep an eye on the baby, OK?"  
  
Ed nodded as she watched Lau and Faye leave hand-in-hand. She sighed. "Ed loves watching those two. It's so romantic."  
  
She was holding Julia with one hand. Matthew came over and took her other hand in his. She smiled at him and kissed him. "You're not so bad either," she said with a grin.  
  
"OK you two, break it up," growled Jet. "Matthew, don't you have a burglar to go catch?"  
  
"Well I don't have any back up," he replied. "Would it be OK if I brought Ed along?"  
  
Ed gave Jet a pleading look. Jet sighed. "Oh alright. But Ed, if you don't come back alive I'll kill you."  
  
Ed came over and kissed him on the cheek. "Ed will be careful papa. I promise." She handed Julia over to Jet. "In the meantime you watch the baby."  
  
She and Matthew headed out towards Matthew's car leaving Ed, Ein, and Julia all alone. Jet looked at Ein and then walked over to the window. He put a HELP WANTED sign up. Then he turned back to Julia. He picked her up and looked right into her eyes. "Little girl, when you get older and start giving your father gray hairs like my kid does to me, I am going to be there to enjoy every single minute of it."  
  
Julia just grinned and grabbed Jet's beard.  
  
ARE YOU A REAL PERSON?  
  
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner jak981125catholic.org  
  
Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't. This is just fanfiction. 


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